History

23 Feb 2025 02:22

22 February 1943: Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, and Christoph Probst are executed in Munich for distributing anti-war leaflets as part of the Weiße Rose (White Rose) group. They were aged 21, 25, and 23 respectively.

History

30 Jan 2025 00:16

Today it is Lunar New Year. In China it is the year of the snake. The snake is associated with cunning, intelligence, and charm.

Image source

History

26 Jan 2025 00:19

January 25 1911: Kanno Sugako is executed in Japan for her part in a plot to assassinate Emperor Meiji.
She was radicalised as a teenager after being raped, and finding mental support for this within the socialist movement. She strongly advocated for equal rights for men and women and deplored the terrible state of the working class in Japan.
Before her execution, she became an anarcha-feminist.

Her reflections written before her death can be read here.

History

25 Dec 2024 00:20

http://www.folk.wales/the-mari-lwyd.html

History

22 Dec 2024 01:32

Zuni people (a north American Pueblo group) mark the solstice with a sacred dance called the Shalako, which involves people dressed as towering figures. (Image: Ma-Pe-Wi, c.1920

History

06 Dec 2024 00:12

Image sources:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/orpost/albums/72157632138608676/with/5515922971/
(The uploader talks more about his uncle meeting Krampus there.)

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/greetings-from-krampus/

History

06 Dec 2024 00:08

Krampusnacht in Mitterndorf, Austria (1949).
Krampus is an old alpine folk creature that seems to have arisen out of various pagan traditions, and been mixed with the Christian devil. He comes out just before the Feast of St. Nicholas and swats naughty children with his birch branches. And later, on Christmas Eve, he return, puts them in his basket, and vanishes...

History

10 Nov 2024 01:20

The notable ones include -
-The execution of Robert Blum in 1848, marking the beginning of the end of the 1848-49 German Revolutions.
-Proclamation of the end of the monarchy, 1918.
-The attempted Beer Hall Putsch of the Nazis, 1923, the failure of which would lead Hitler to aim for a democratic victory.
-The antisemetic pogrom Kristallnacht, 1938, that many see as the start of the Holocaust.
-The fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989.

History

02 Oct 2024 02:20

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/01/compare-jimmy-carter-100-presidents/

History

09 Jun 2024 02:21

https://www.cnn.com/travel/mallory-disappeared-everest-summit-mystery/index.html

History

09 Jun 2024 02:18

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/26/what-the-last-veterans-can-teach-us-all-as-d-day-fades-from-memory

History

07 Jun 2024 02:01

Midnight: D-Day has clearly been a success. The Germans, unprepared and confused, have failed to effectively prevent the beaches being taken. Despite this, most objectives have not been taken, and the failure to take places like Caen will haunt the Allies as German reinforcements begin to arrive.
But with the opening of a second front, it is the beginning of the end for the Reich.

History

06 Jun 2024 22:31

20:30: The army camps, like the one pictured in Blandford, Dorset, have been eerily quiet since the troops left. However, casualties are now filtering back across southern England. In Basingstoke, Hampshire, a single soldier arrives still with wet sand on him.

History

06 Jun 2024 22:02

20:00: Rommel has finally arrived at his HQ in Chateau La Roche-Guyon. He has driven non-stop.
His aide, Captain Lang, runs inside and is shocked to hear a Wagner opera playing from General Speidel's office. "General Speidel," he asks, " the invasion has begun and you're able to listen to Wagner?"
"My dear Lang, do you honestly believe that my listening to Wagner will make any difference whatsoever to the course of the invasion?" replied Speidel.
As the three begin discussions, there is a feeling of depression.

History

06 Jun 2024 19:21

17:21: Omaha beach is now able to receive wheeled and tracked traffic, meaning supply vehicles and tanks can land. The Allied position is still precarious, but the ability of the Germans to destroy the beachheads is rapidly dwindling, even as reinforcements arrive.

History

19 Feb 2025 01:55

Advert for the 'Bantam Units' - used during WWI by the British, these units consisted of men 5ft to 5'3", who were too small for ordinary service.

History

28 Jan 2025 01:09

80 years ago on January 27th, 1945, the Red Army came across Auschwitz.

Primo Levi describes the moment:
"They were four young soldiers on horseback, who advanced along the road that marked the limits of the camp, cautiously holding their sten-guns. When they reached the barbed wire they stopped to look, exchanging a few timid words, and throwing strangely embarrassed glances at the sprawling bodies, and the battered huts and at us few still alive. To us they seemed wonderfully concrete and real, perched on their enormous horses, between the grey of the snow and the grey of the sky, immobile beneath the gusts of damp wind which threatened the thaw."

Many of the inmates at both Auschwitz I, II (Birkenau), III (Monowitz, where Levi was), and the various other subcamps, were near death, because most of the stronger inmates had been evacuated in order to work in camps further from the frontline.

(Photo: Henryk Makarewicz)

History

07 Jan 2025 01:44

The three Biblical magi Balthazar, Caspar, and Melchior as depicted by Herrad of Landsberg (France, 1185) and reproduced by Christian Maurice Engelhardt (1818).
The true identities of the Biblical Magi, whose visit to baby Jesus is celebrated on Epiphany, is not known. Their traditional names originate from a lost 6th century Greek manuscript - other Christian groups call them different names, such as Syrians, who call them Larvandad, Gushnasaph, and Hormisdas. A Chinese tradition holds that one of them was from China.
The historicity of the story is debated. It seems possible that the story was more one laced with symbolism, foreshadowing, and allegory than one based on reality. For example, myrrh was frequently used in burial practices at the time - a hint of the fate of the baby they were visiting.

History

25 Dec 2024 00:20

A 'Mari Lwyd' (Thomas Evans, Llangynwyd, Wales, 1904-10).
This strange Welsh custom involves a horse skull being held on a stick, with a sheet hanging down, to create a sort of hobby-horse. A person stands inside. The horse then goes wassailing (an old form of carol singing). The person visited traditionally refuses the horse entry, before giving in and letting it and its companions inside to have food.
The origins, and even the meaning of the name, remain a mystery.

History

22 Dec 2024 01:30

It is the night of the Winter Solstice. This night has much significance in European folklore as a time of ritual, fear, and hope.
The Wild Hunt, a ghostly procession of men and beasts led by Odin, prefer this time most of all. Any unwary traveller caught in its path will meet their doom, although in some tellings Odin is only out to capture some maidens or elves.
This time is also associated with an increase in draugr activity, so be careful.
Partial source

History

06 Dec 2024 00:10

Krampus has not been popular; Krampus traditions were repressed by the church and by Austrian fascism because of their pagan roots. In the 1950s, it was speculated that he may harm the mental health of children, and pamphlets were distributed warning parents about him. Nonetheless, Krampus perseveres.

History

10 Nov 2024 01:22

This was the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. Many German adults have now only known Germany united, something that once was thought a pipedream.

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-commemorates-35-years-since-fall-of-berlin-wall/a-70743233

History

10 Nov 2024 01:20

November 9 is known informally as Schicksalstag (Day of Fate) in Germany. Oddly, a number of highly significant events in German history have happened on this day.

History

02 Oct 2024 02:20

Turning 100 today, Jimmy Carter is the first American President to ever do so. He became the oldest ever former President in 2019. When he was born, Calvin Coolidge was President.

History

09 Jun 2024 02:21

On June 8th, 1924, George Mallory and Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine disappeared climbing Mount Everest. The question of whether they reached the summit has never been answered.

History

09 Jun 2024 02:18

Thank you for following the D-Day live posts. I did realise that (despite some confusion amongst publications) D-Day time is normally written as GMT+2. My mistake!

History

07 Jun 2024 01:01

23:00: Hitler holds the second situation conference today. In part thanks to deceptive intelligence planted by the agent "Garbo" (Juan Pujol), who himself is currently furiously trying to continue the deception, Hitler still believes this is a diversion and that the real landings will take place further north.

History

06 Jun 2024 22:02

20:00: Members of the Essex Yeomanry are tending to the wounded in a bunker above Gold beach. They have found a note to a German soldier - "Hans chéri" - from a French woman saying she'll meet him at 8pm. They wonder if she still will.

History

06 Jun 2024 20:02

18:00: The 192nd Panzergrenadier Regiment reach the beach at Lion-sur-Mer. Weak and without air support, they are unable to continue the pincer movement, and are forced to retreat.

History

06 Jun 2024 19:01

17:00: Sword beach has been an especial failure by the Germans, as many prisoners are now being marched off to captivity. However, the 21st Panzer Division is about to launch the only major counter-attack of D-Day.